Britain's JKX Oil & Gas, the operator of the B1-Golitza license in Bulgaria, began on Thursday a two-well drill program in the country to test targets with an estimated resource of up to 60 billion cubic feet (Bcf).

The Staro Oryahovo South R-1 well will be drilled to test a submarine fan target of Eocene age in the Kamchia Basin, south west of Varna, Bulgaria.

Drilling is planned to complete by the end of September when the rig will move to the Shkorpilovtci South West R2 location, 5km to the south.

JKX Oil & Gas signed at the end of May on a CCC-500 drilling unit through Weatherford for two wells in Bulgaria's onshore B1-Golitza Block.

The first well in the program, SOS, will test a potential 20-30 Bcf prospect at 1,500 meters, up dip of the depleted Stary Oryahovo gas field, discovered in the 1960s. Results of this well are expected in early October 2010.

The second well, S54, will also be testing a potential 20-30 Bcf prospect at a depth of 600 meters with results expected by the end of the fourth quarter of 2010.

Interests in the B1-Golitza block are held by JKX (40%), Balkan Explorers (Bulgaria) Limited (a 100% subsidiary of Aurelian Oil and Gas PLC) (30%) and Sorgenia International B.V.